Data is frequently stored across different data storage devices. Different data storage devices may employ different types of data storage media. For example, one cloud-based storage system may employ flash memory organized in solid state drives (SSD) while another cloud-based storage system may store data on tape and hard disk drives. Additionally, the data storage media may be produced by different manufacturers and may employ different proprietary formats. Thus, in conventional data storage systems, data may be stored in different, incompatible formats.
To overcome the problem of data stored in incompatible formats, conventional data storage systems have translated data between the different, incompatible formats. For example, if a data storage system stores some user data on tape in one format and needs to move that data to a disk that accepts only a second format, the data storage system will have to translate the data from the first format to the second format. While translating data between formats makes otherwise incompatible storage devices seem compatible from the perspective of an end user, translating data between formats may be computationally and resource intensive. In a conventional system, the translation between formats may take so much time that the delay is noticeable to a user.
Other conventional data storage systems have approached the problem of handling incompatible data storage formats by employing object stores. Object storage abstracts lower layers of the data storage system away from system administrators and applications using the data storage system. Data stored in an object storage system is managed as objects instead of as files or blocks of data. Conventional cloud-based data storage systems typically employ object stores. However, object stores have limitations that may make them less than optimal when storing or moving data across different, incompatible formats. For example, a search engine may store image data in one proprietary object store format, while a social media network may store image data in another proprietary object store format that is incompatible with the format employed by the search engine. Meanwhile, an online mobile photo sharing service may store image data in yet another different, incompatible, proprietary object store format. A user of all three services may find it inconvenient to have to manage their image data across the three services. Additionally, object storage formats between different physical storage devices may be incompatible. Thus, conventional solutions to the problem of different storage formats may be less than optimal.